Brand consultant Nadine Jarrard has been posting on LinkedIn for six years, and later she noticed something strange: her comments received more attention than the posts she actually published.
In October, each of her three comments received more exposure than any of her posts, despite her consistent habit of posting daily.
“This is a bit crazy,” Jarrard said to me.
The increasing influence of the comment sections also provides brands with the opportunity to participate in and amplify creator marketing. For example, Instagram allows brands to pay creators to endorse their products within the brand's comment sections.
Open Influence Chief Customer Officer Maggie Reznikoff said, "Comments are a form of cultural currency and they also drive trends. We live in an era where the influence of comments can be just as significant as that of the content itself."
LinkedIn indicates that the time spent reading comments on the platform has increased by 18% year-on-year; moreover, members who leave comments under posts have 2.5 times more page views on their personal profiles than those who do not comment. LinkedIn has also taken some measures to make comments more valuable, including limiting the visibility of automatically generated comments, testing the method of displaying comments directly in the information stream, and allowing users to pin comments to guide discussions.
For a long time, creators have paid close attention to their comment sections, using them as a way to connect with fans and demonstrate the value of their communities to brands. Nowadays, they are increasingly seeing opportunities to get involved in conversations that are taking place elsewhere. Industry insiders in the creator economy say that this opens up another area of influence for brands to leverage—and it has the potential to be integrated into...
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Later CEO Scott Sutton said, "Comments are one of the most interesting trends in pop culture today."
The creator is fine-tuning their comment strategy.
Creator Colin Rocker, who focuses on professional fields, said that for topics he is interested in, such as careers and AI, he will enable notifications for relevant users so that he can comment on their posts.
Digital strategist Zack Starikov said that in the past few weeks, he has been increasing his efforts in engaging with the comment sections of LinkedIn.
He said, “In the past, you could post a video and it would get a lot of exposure. Now it seems that nothing gets as much exposure as comments do. I’ve decided to be more strategic. In the past, I would just say ‘That’s great, really nice.’ Now, I make sure that if I express a viewpoint, I can support it with reasons or data.”
This impact is not just about vanity metrics. Starikov relies on LinkedIn to attract new customers and secure more business. He said that in the past 90 days, the views of his personal homepage have increased by 27%.
“I’ll see people visiting my homepage, as well as checking out my business,” he said.
AJ Eckstein is a creator focused on enterprises, and his content covers topics such as creator economics and B2B marketing. He says that through comment activities, he helped grow his business to seven-figure scale. He usually spends twice as much time on comments as he does on posting, including commenting on posts from clients, potential clients, and other participants in the creator economy. He mentions that those with whom he has interacted often respond back after his own posts are published.
“This is essentially a mutually beneficial design,” he said.
However, comments can also make people overly fussy.
“Be as authentic as possible. Don’t be too critical of yourself in your comments,” said Yoni Frenkel, who provides content strategy services for tech executives and investors. “Everyone on LinkedIn is over-optimizing, trying to appear smarter than they are.”
Jarrard said that she would try her best to make her comments reflect her personality, and even deliberately leave spelling mistakes in them, so that they wouldn't be mistaken for the junk content generated by AI.
Insights for Brands
The Sutton of Later says that the comment section is a way for brands to engage in online interactions in a more down-to-earth manner.
“I think the comment section will always exist, and it will only become more important,” said Sutton. “Brands must find new ways to engage in conversations, and they can’t come across as awkward, self-serving, or do what people usually expect brands to do.”
The person in charge of the Creative Lab, Yahoo, said that Yahoo also uses comments to observe the resonance between the content created by their creators and the audience.
Some brands also require creator partners to comment under each other's posts as part of the campaign. However, if the comments seem deliberate or pre-written, this approach can backfire.
Reznikoff It is recommended that brands look for creators who are already fans of the brand, as this will make the interaction more natural. Brands should also participate in comments personally.
"When a brand truly emerges and interacts with consumers, it brings about tangible differences," she said. Some brands, such as Duolingo and Wendy, have long adopted a playful personality online, including when replying to others' posts.
Creator marketers also stated that the comment section provides brands with an opportunity beyond emotional analysis to understand people's views on the brand and other cultural changes.
Although LinkedIn can provide ordinary users with a lot of data about their usage, Sutton states that Instagram and TikTok enable brands to conduct in-depth research on broader cultural changes and consumer trends.
Looking to the future, creator marketers envision comments becoming a unit of influence. Sutton says that in the future, platforms might link comment behavior to commercial outcomes such as sales.
Reznikoff said that she believes comments may become a new performance indicator for evaluating creators in the future, and brands might also offer rewards for outstanding comment behavior.
“I can imagine that in the end, we will also monetize those who make the content more attractive,” she said.
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